


Act III: Overture

by Maddalia



Category: The Professionals
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-09
Updated: 2012-01-09
Packaged: 2017-10-29 06:34:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/316800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maddalia/pseuds/Maddalia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A sequel to "Strangler Fig" and "Shall I Compare Thee...?"</p><p>After long and careful thought, Bodie's decided to take the initiative in the new development of his and Doyle's relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Act III: Overture

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Milomaus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milomaus/gifts), [merentha13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/merentha13/gifts), [LilyK](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilyK/gifts), [golden_bastet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/golden_bastet/gifts), [Airelle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Airelle/gifts).



As he pulled up outside Doyle’s place, Bodie felt more scared than he had the day before, when they were running for their lives after a botched handover. At least in combat you knew what to expect — and you only had to live with it afterwards if you were successful. What was happening now could be a terrible failure, and he’d not only have to live with it, he’d have to keep working with Doyle. Either that or ask for a new partner, which to Bodie was unthinkable.

Last night he hadn’t considered the possibility of being rejected. He’d only considered the hurt expression on Doyle’s face before he walked away from him as confirmation that his feelings were reciprocated. This morning, he considered the possibility that Doyle might not think a relationship with him was worth the hassle.

‘Come on, Bodie, it’s just nerves,’ he muttered to himself as he got out of the car. He tried to focus on how Doyle had looked before he kissed him — and just after. He felt better.

Assuming Doyle _didn’t_ reject him out of hand, Bodie had it all worked out. He’d thought about it all quite coolly last night, like the way he’d banked down his nerves to decide the sorts of things he’d say when Cowley interviewed him for CI5. Unfortunately, the Cow being the Cow, one piercing glare and all Bodie’s careful resolutions had gone out the window. But it didn’t have to be like that this time. This was Ray, after all, a man with whom Bodie’d had a thousand conversations. Sometimes in an awkward moment, they might get tongue-tied around each other, or end up arguing when one or both of them were stressed, because it was hard to admit weakness. Other times, though, they confided in each other, supported each other. Quite often, this amounted to two halves of the same conversation. Bodie was sure that it would be OK this time. Even if he lost his nerve once, he’d get it back, wouldn’t he?

So this was how he was going to play it: contrite for upsetting Doyle, a little ashamed of overreacting, _but,_ immovable on the subject of strangulation, figurative or otherwise. And if Doyle thought he could dominate and possess without Bodie giving as good as he got, he had another think coming. Firm but fair; that was the thing.

 _Firm but fair,_ Bodie told himself. _Don’t get emotional._

Christ, but it was hard _not_ to get that way around his partner. And vice versa. Bodie hadn’t forgotten that _Doyle_ being over-emotional was what had started the whole problem. A rational Ray Doyle wouldn’t have said the things he’d said yesterday. A rational Ray Doyle cherished the thought of an equal partnership the same way Bodie did.

An irrationally nervous Bodie pressed the buzzer in the wall outside Ray’s flat.

‘Hello?’ Doyle’s groggy voice answered, a minute later. It sounded like he’d been asleep.

‘Ray, it’s me.’

‘Oh, thank God. Push!’

Touched by the unguarded relief in the other man’s voice, Bodie opened the gate, walked through the untidy garden and entered Doyle’s kitchen through the glass door. Doyle was standing by the fridge, staring nervously at him. Bodie told himself not to be melted by that big-eyed look. Firm but fair. If he could just remember what he’d been going to say ...

‘Bodie, I’m really sorry.’

What had he been going to say? What had he been going to do? How was Doyle managing to look that gorgeous, bleary-eyed and unshaven and having obviously slept in his clothes? Why was there this huge gap between them? How could they be even a foot apart at a time like this?

‘Mmm!’ Doyle said, as Bodie closed the distance and kissed him. He wound his arms round Bodie’s shoulders and kissed him back, so Bodie only had a split second to fear being pushed away. ‘Fuck, I was a’ — he cut himself off to kiss Bodie again — ‘mmm — an idiot.’

‘So was I.’ Bodie kissed Doyle from his lips to his throat, and back again. What had he been going to say?

‘Does this mean I’m forgiven?’ Doyle asked.

Did it? Was there _any_ thought involved in this?

‘I suppose it does,’ Bodie replied. He pulled away just enough to look his partner in the eye. He couldn’t resist touching his face, tracing its contours. Doyle was doing the same to him. It would have been like memorising each other, except he felt fairly sure they already knew each other by heart.

‘Am I?’ he asked.

‘What do you think?’ Doyle’s next kiss was fierce, and the hug that followed it was fiercer. Bodie lost himself in it. There was something nagging at the edge of his consciousness, something he had to make clear. Something that needed to be said, for him to be farm but fur, or something ...

‘Don’t let go.’

He definitely wasn’t supposed to say _that._

‘What about you not wanting to be strangled?’ Doyle murmured, though he didn’t loosen his grip even a little bit.

‘Yeah, well, I forgot something yesterday,’ said Bodie.

‘What?’

 _‘This_ tree strangles back.’

Doyle’s answering chuckle warmed him.

‘You know,’ he said, ‘I was _trying_ to say ...’

‘Don’t worry about it now,’ said Bodie. ‘Talk later.’

‘Ah,’ said Doyle. He did pull away then, but Bodie was glad he did, because he was smiling, and such a sight was worth almost anything.

‘Bed?’ he asked.

‘Anywhere,’ Bodie answered.

Doyle kissed the tip of his nose.

‘Bed,’ he said decisively. He took Bodie’s hand and pulled him to the foot of the stairs. When he went on ahead, Bodie followed slowly, watching every movement of Doyle’s stunning posterior, encased in a pair of tight brown cords. He couldn’t resist reaching out to touch. Doyle laughed.

‘Never have been able to keep your hands off that.’

‘Ah, well, _some_ things are just irresistible, even when one’s controlling oneself.’

Doyle swung his hips tantalisingly as he reached the top of the stairs. ‘And there was me thinking you were a leg man.’

‘Oh, I can be both, don’t you worry.’

To demonstrate, Bodie moved his hands from Doyle’s buttocks to the backs of his thighs, stroking his way around to the front. Then he took hold of Doyle’s hips and pulled his partner roughly against him, letting him feel the strength of his arousal. Mouth close to Doyle’s ear, he whispered: ‘You drive me fucking crazy.’

‘I can ...’ Doyle began, then seemed to think better of what he was going to say. He turned his head sideways to capture Bodie’s mouth. The kiss was close-lipped, but sensual and lingering. ‘Show me how much.’

Bodie lowered one hand to Doyle’s crotch and squeezed gently, eliciting a sharp gasp from the lips of his new lover. He undid the fastenings of the brown cords and slipped his hand inside the waistband of Doyle’s briefs, feeling the growing hardness there. His own cock jumped in response, and he gave a sigh of pleasure that echoed his partner’s.

‘What do you want?’ he managed to ask. Doyle looked at him as if it were a silly question.

‘You.’ He caressed Bodie’s cheek with the back of one hand, and kissed him again. He ground his arse against Bodie’s crotch as Bodie began to stroke him in earnest.

‘No, I mean ...’

‘I want whatever you want to give me.’

‘I want to give you everything.’

‘Oh God, Bodie, I ...’

‘What?’

‘Nothing, mate. Don’t stop.’

Bodie knew what he’d been about to say, and why he hadn’t said it. He couldn’t help smiling. Doyle was beginning to lose himself in the pleasure of what Bodie was doing to him, but he was still being careful, still being considerate, trying his hardest to make up for the rashness of yesterday. Bodie’s heart swelled and _he_ wanted to say it, but not yet. He wanted to claim Doyle completely before he let those words escape his lips. He’d lost control downstairs, but he wasn’t going to relinquish it when Doyle had handed it to him. _Whatever you want to give me._

‘Bodie ... Bodie ... gonna come ...’

Bodie intensified the movements of his right hand, and reached down with his left to give the tightly drawn-up balls a gentle squeeze. Doyle climaxed with a cry, his breath a warm huff against Bodie’s cheek, his seed hot as it spilled over Bodie’s fingers. Bodie felt a great jolt in his loins and almost came with him, but he controlled himself, merely holding the trembling figure that collapsed against him in joyous exhaustion. Christ, he wanted this man. More than he’d ever wanted anything. He needed Doyle at that moment like he needed oxygen, longed for him like trees for light and rain, loved him to infinity.

‘Got what we need,’ Doyle murmured finally. ‘Bedside table drawer. Use it on meself sometimes.’

Bodie guided his still-wobbly partner over to the bed, and went to retrieve the tube in question. When he turned around again, Doyle was almost naked, just shrugging his shirt off his shoulders. He threw it on top of his other clothes, discarded on the floor at the foot of the bed. Bodie began to strip too, and after a moment of watching him, Doyle got up to help, easing him gently out of his clothes, then sitting down on the bed so he could look up at him, raking his eyes over every inch of Bodie.

‘Jesus, Ray,’ Bodie said. ‘I could come just from you looking at me like that.’

‘I can’t help how gorgeous you are.’ Doyle shrugged.

‘Am I?’ Bodie was under no illusions about his looks, but he was touched all the same.

‘You tell me often enough.’

‘No one’s ever said it _to_ me, though.’

‘You let me stick around long enough, mate, I’ll change that and then some,’ Doyle said with a grin, lying back against his pillows in a languorous sprawl. ‘See this?’ He swept a hand through the air over his body, a bit like a woman advertising a car. ‘Totally yours.’

‘I know,’ said Bodie, through a suddenly tight throat. Gesturing to himself, he added: ‘Totally yours.’

‘Come here and show me, then.’

Bodie got onto the bed, kneeling between Doyle’s legs. He unscrewed the cap of the tube and squeezed some of the cool gel onto his hand. He slicked himself first, biting back a groan at the touch of his own hand, then he concentrated on preparing Doyle. It had been a long time since he’d done this to another man. He’d done it to himself, sometimes, because it was rare that a woman would give that area any attention, and Bodie knew better than they did where to touch. He knew when he’d reached that place inside Doyle, because he gave a sudden loud moan and his body arched off the bed. Bodie felt another, almost unbearable jolt at the sight of him.

‘Fuck, Bodie ... that’s gorgeous.’

‘You ready for more?’

‘Oh God, yes. How d’you want me?’

‘Just like that. I want to kiss you.’

‘Come on then.’

Bodie shifted closer between his partner’s slim, muscled thighs, taking his cock in one hand and positioning it at Doyle’s entrance.

‘It’s OK, do it,’ Doyle encouraged. His breaths came hard and fast as Bodie pushed into him, but he didn’t seem to be in any pain. Bodie felt Doyle’s tight, velvet warmth enclose him, squeezing him, and for the third time that morning he had to grit his teeth to hold off orgasm. When he was completely inside Doyle, though, his balls resting against the soft/hard flesh of the other man’s buttocks, it was a torrent of emotion he had to try and hold back.

As he started to thrust, Doyle rocked to meet him, groaning, and Bodie saw that his cock was filling again. He stroked it in rhythm with his thrusts until it was at full erection, then Doyle reached for him, urging him forward until he lay fully over him. Letting go of Doyle’s cock, Bodie held his face in both hands and kissed him. Doyle moaned into his mouth and kissed him back; tongues slid over each other in mutual exploration, then Bodie deepened the kiss, simultaneously changing the rhythm of his hips to long, slow thrusts, experimenting a little with the angle. Doyle broke off to cry out and throw back his head. He grasped Bodie’s buttocks and pulled him down and hard into him. Bodie took that as a cue to speed up.

‘Ray,’ he moaned, and kissed him again. ‘So good’ — another kiss — ‘gonna make it so good for you ...’

‘’S already ... oh God ...’

‘Like this?’

‘Just like that. Right there. Hey’ — Doyle kissed him again, one hand on the back of his neck — ‘that’s better. Missed you ... ahh! Yes ... yes ... Bodie, you ready? Yeah?’

‘Christ, yes. I’m so close it ... hurts ...’

‘Oh, Bodie ... fuck me ... harder ... come in me ... oh God, I l--’

But the rest of the word was lost in a deep cry of ecstasy, and Bodie cried out with him as they came, almost exactly together, and Bodie fancied he could feel Doyle’s climax as acutely as his own; for a few seconds they’d exploded into fusion, and actually become one being. As he began to come down off the high, and closed his eyes to kiss his partner deeply and lovingly, he literally saw stars, winking in the darkness behind his eyelids. He dozed languidly for a few minutes, knowing he must be getting heavy, even though Doyle wasn’t complaining. When, at length, he rolled off his partner, he immediately found himself pulled backwards into an embrace. Both Doyle’s arms, and one of his legs, were around him. But he didn’t feel strangled. He merely turned around and hugged back, finally collecting his wits long enough to say, not the rational arrangement of words he’d thought out at home the night before, but the only three that mattered. Because they _did_ matter now, even if they’d never be necessary again.

When he heard them echoed back at him, Bodie smiled, and closed his eyes, and slept.


End file.
